Commercial Rap: Sprite Edition

Kurtis Blow (1986)

Sprite always had the illest rapper commercials.

Here is the first batch. Part 2 coming soon!

Kid N Play (1990)

Heavy D & The Boyz (1990)

Kriss Kross (1993)

Nas & AZ (1997)

Drake (2010)

Demos: Nasty Nas Demo Tape (1991)

There is a set of early Nas recordings floating around called the "Pre-Illmatic Demos" that has most assuming it is Nas' demo tape, but according to MC Search this isn't true. Search claims that there were only 2 songs on the Nas demo that blew him away 20 years ago resulting in him signing Nas to Columbia. Those 2 songs are "Nas Will Prevail" and "I'm A Villain" and both songs are produced by Large Professor. "Nas Will Prevail" is an early version of what would become "It Ain't Hard To Tell". The track still features the MJ "Human Nature" sample, but the majority of the lyrics are different. The other song on Nas' demo tape is "I'm A Villain". The story on the beat is that LP made it for Eric B & Rakim during the making of Don't Sweat The Technique, but Ra didn't show up to the recording session. Large Pro slid the beat to Nas and "I'm A Villian" was the result. This track is the gem of the demo to me only because it's ill to hear Nas on a beat that sounds like 1991 all day. On top of that, Nas had to be 17 or 18 at the time but sounded years beyond his age. Like most demo tapes the sound is average at best, but both these tracks are DJ drop/ID free. Ladies and gentleman, b-boys and b-girls, I give you Nasty Nas' Demo Tape!

Nasty Nas

Demo Tape (1991)

1. "Nas Will Prevail"

2. "I'm A Villian"

Rap Treats #91: Nas - SXSW Illmatic Concert (Full Performance)

Usually this would fall under the Classic Material category, but it may just be the illest Rap Treat on Nation Of Millions. At SXSW this year Nas performed Illmatic in it's entirety complete with DJ's Premier and Pete Rock on the tables and AZ to rock his verse on "Life's A Bitch". Not sure why the powers that be didn't hook up one video with the whole show, but these videos should do the trick. This isn't the show in its entirety, but it is all of Illmatic. Primo and Pete Rock took time out in the middle of the show to battle - Primo beat versus Pete Rock beat! Also, Nas rocked his verse from Main Source's "Live At The BBQ" during his set, as well as a few of his hits ending with "Made You Look" (which I included at the bottom). How do I know all this? Because I was there - geeked as a motherfucker. Easily in my top 5 concerts that I've been too. Watch all these videos asap. Nas rocks well, it ain't hard to tell!

Bonus Illmatic - Here is a 45 Minute set from Funk Flex and Lovebug Starski from The Tunnel that includes the Nas' Illmatic release party (previous Rap Treat).

Funk Flex & Lovebug Starski
Live at The Tunnel/Nas Illmatic Release Party (1994)

Rap Treats #90: Nas - Columbia Records Illmatic Release Party Performance (1994)

"Y'all ready for Nas? Y'all ready for Nasty Nas?!"

This is quite the Rap Treat - a recording of Nas performing at his Columbia Records' Illmatic album release party from 1994. Gems like this don't surface every day. Whoever is responsable for pressing record on the tape deck and then ripping it 15+ years later I salute you. This is one of my favorite albums of all time and one of the albums to receive 5 mics from The Source back when The Source was THE authority on Hip-Hop (click HERE to read the review). Having the audio of Nas' performance is just crazy to me and another reason the internet is the fucking shit. Nas and crew run through a few cuts from the album including "Represent" (with a different beat) and his "new single" "It Ain't Hard To Tell". It also features a lot of yelling from his his crew, AZ on "Life's a Bitch", and the "Y'all ready for Nasty Nas" sound bite that is used on Nas' "Nasty" record.

*Re-Upped with a much better sounding copy + the extended version featuring Funkmaster Flex's set before and after Nas' performance. Queensbridge is most definitely in the house!

Nas

Columbia Records Illmatic Release Party Performance

1. "Represent"

2. "It Ain't Hard To Tell"

3. "The World Is Yours"

4. "Life's A Bitch"

Funkmaster Flex w/ Luvbug Starski & Nas

Columbia Records Illmatic Release Party DJ Set

Records: Nas - Illmatic 12"s

Nasty Nas is the illest. For real. Illmatic is easily in my top 5 albums of all time. Every 12" off Illmatic is classic as fuck. On top of that, even the records that weren't released as a single are classic as fuck. I'm not sure there is a more perfect album in Hip-Hop music than Nas' debut. Here are all the 12"s off Illmatic, including the Japan only release of all the DJ Premier produced records that came out in 2008.

Nas

"Halftime" 12" (1992)

(Ruffhouse/Columbia Records)

A1 "Halftime" (Radio Edit)

A2 "Halftime" (LP Version)

A3 "Halftime" (LP Version Instrumental)

B1 "Halftime" (Butcher Remix)

B2 "Halftime" (Butcher Instrumental)

Produced by Large Professor

Remix produced by Joe "The Butcher" Nicola

Nas

"It Ain't Hard To Tell" 12" (1994)

(Columbia Records)

A1 "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (Main Mix)

B1 "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (Instrumental)

B2 "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (A Cappella)

Produced by Large Professor

Nas

"It Ain't Hard To Tell" Remix (1994)

(Columbia Records)

A1 "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (Remix)

B1 "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (Remix Instrumental)

Remix produced by Large Professor

Nas feat. AZ

"Life's A Bitch" 12" (1994)

(Columbia Records)

A1 "Life's A Bitch" (Radio)

A2 "Life's A Bitch" (Dirty)

A3 "Life's A Bitch" (Instrumental)

B1 "Life's A Bitch" (Arsenal Radio Mix)

B2 "Life's A Bitch" (Arsenal Dirty Mix)

B3 "Life's A Bitch" (Arsenal Instrumental Mix)

Produced by L.E.S.

Remix produced by Def Jef & Meach Wells

Nas

"One Love" 12" (1994)

(Columbia Records)

A1 "One Love" (Album Version)

A2 "One Love" (Radio Edit)

A3 "One Love" (Album Instrumental)

A4 "One Love" (Acappella)

B1 "One Love" (LG Main Mix)

B2 "One Love" (LG Radio Edit)

B3 "One Love" (LG Instrumental)

B4 "One Love" (One L Main Mix)

B5 "One Love" (One L Radio Edit)

B6 "One Love" (One L Instrumental)

Produced by Q-Tip

B1, B2, B3 remix produced by The LG Experience

B4, B5, B6 remix produced by Godfather Don & Victor Padilla

Nas

"The World Is Yours" 12" (1994)

(Columbia Records)

A1 "The World Is Yours"

A2 "The World Is Yours" (Instrumental)

B1 "The World Is Yours" (Tip Mix)

B2 "The World Is Yours" (Tip Mix Instrumental)

Produced by Pete Rock

Remix produced by Q-Tip

Nas

"Memory Lane" 12" (2008)

(Ill Will Records)

A1 "Memory Lane"

A2 "Memory Lane" (Instrumental)

B1 "N.Y. State Of Mind"

B2 "Represent"

Produced by DJ Premier

Classic Material: Nas, Mobb Deep & Raekwon on Yo! MTV Raps

Straight Out go 1995, this is Mobb Deep, Raekwon and Nas being interviewed and rhyming on Yo! MTV Raps back when these 3 were the ABSOLUTE hottest shit out.

"I Showed You Your First Tec On Tour With Large Professor"

I've always wondered about that Jay-Z line in "Takeover" that calls out Nas for keeping his "tec on the dresser". To refresh your memory it goes "You scribbled in your notepad and created your life/I showed you your first tec on tour with Large Professor/(Me, that’s who!) Then I heard your album bout your tec on the dresser". Well the back story has been unearthed in a very dope Large Professor piece done for XXL back in 2002 (okay, so it was unearthed 8 years ago but I just caught wind of it recently).

Excerpt:

Main Source soon set off on tour, along with the UMCs and Jaz. One particular night of that tour came up recently in the very public catfight between Jay-Z (then Jaz’s hypeman) and Nas (who rolled with Main Source). During a show in Washington D.C. the sound system cut out, forcing the artists to do the same. The angry crowd rushed the stage and chased the rappers back unto their tour bus.

“We were figuring we were gonna have to knuckle down,” explains LP of the incident, which Jay has used to attack Nas. “Jay came outta nowhere, reachin’ in his gym bag like, ‘Don’t even sweat these niggas. I got that.’ He didn’t show [Nas] the gun like, ‘I’m gonna shoot you,’ but we were all just like, ‘Whew!’”

Rap Treats #77: Nas - Please Listen To My Demo (Originals, Rare, Unreleased and Freestyles)

A while back we put a Nas demo tape up in the Rap Treats section which gave a pretty good look at a pre Illmatic Nas, but this one is much more comprehensive. Freestyles, demo's and never heard before records by an unsigned Nas. This isn't his demo tape, but it is a compilation of his earliest work.

Nas

Please Listen To My Demo

1. Intro

2. 17 Years Old Freestylin

3. Freestyle - 1st Time On Stretch & Bob

4. Freestyle - 2nd Time On Stretch & Bob

5. Another Day In The Projects (Demo)

6. I'm A Villain (Demo) *Both Joints Would Become NY Stae of Mind

7. Freestyle - 3rd Time On Stretch & Bob

8. Freestyle - Wake Up Show

9. Memory Lane (Premo's Demo Mix)

10. Represent (Premo's Demo Mix)

11. Nas Will Prevail (Large Professor's "It Ain't Hard To Tell" Demo Mix)

12. Who's World Is This (Rough Draft From DJ Hollywood)

13. Lifes A Bitch (Rough Draft Studio Session)

14. Life Is Like A Dice Game (Demo)

15. True Dialect (Unreleased)

16. Understanding (Demo)

17. Wake Up Show (Promo)

18. 1994 Freestyle In The UK

19. Deja Vu (Demo) *Later to be Used on Verbal Intercourse

20. #1 With A Bullet (Unreleased)

21. On The Real (Original Marley Marl Demo Mix ft Cormega & Khamakazie)

22. Don't Hate Me Now (Unreleased)

23. Life Gone Low (Unreleased)

24. Tales From The Hood (Unreleased)

25. New York (Unreleased Hard 2 Earn Mix)

26. 2nd Coming (Unreleased)

27. Untitled Track (Produced By Premier)

28. High (Unreleased)

29. Nas Will Rock (Unreleased Produced By Pete Rock)

30. Surviving The Times

Rap Treats #73: Jay-Z & Nas Live In London

This is a Rap Treat that comes straight from DJ Green Lantern. He blessed us with a board feed (in other words a good quality recording) of Jay & Nas performing together in London. This was around the time they had just squashed their beef and started working together. I got shivers just listening to this. It's a trip hearing Hov play hype man for Nasir.

Jay-Z & Nas

Live In London

Jay-Z & Nas

"Dead Presidents" Live feat. Chris Martin

"Heart Of The City" (Sunday Bloody Sunday Remix)

Live in Dublin, Ireland feat. Chris Martin

Nardwuar vs. Nas

Rap Treats #44: Nas "Represent" (Original Instrumental)

This isn't really a hard to find jem because DJ Premier's Beats That Collected Dust just came out and that is where this is from, but I'm still going to label it a Rap Treat anyways. This is the original version instrumental of Nas' "Represent" off his Illmatic album. Nas was super picky when it came to choosing beats for Illmatic and this one didn't make the cut, but it has the "Represent" chorus on it so at one time it did. Represent, Represent!

DJ Premier

"Original Represent"

Classic Material: Nas & Biggie Performing (1995)

Nas and Biggie on stage together back in 1995. Nas spits the 2nd verse of "Suspect" (It Was Written) then passes the mic to Biggie who does the 2nd verse of "Oh My Lord" (Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s Conspiracy). Then the video ends in the middle of Biggie's verse. Method Man can be heard on the mic too. Anybody have the complete footage?

Bill O'Reilly Responds To Nas

What did you expect him to say? Papa Bear is so transparent it's funny. It amazes my that he is able to fool people. It ain't hard to tell...

Rap Treats #33: Nasty Nas & Cormega (1995)

"Whattup with Cormega, did you see 'em, are y'all together?

if so then hold the fort, now I represent to the fullest"

This is a demo recording that was made in 1995 shortly after Cormega came home. I remember hearing back then that Nas and Cormaga were going to team up on some music shit, but then The Firm came out without Cormega and I never heard anything about it again. Nasty Nas, Cormega and some dude named Sly Drama (who I never heard of before) rapping in DJ Hot Day's bedroom on what sounds exactly like a demo that was recorded in one take in somebodys bedroom studio.

Nasty Nas & Cormega

"40th Side Of Things"

Nas Interview & Performance on Colbert Report

More Nas and Colbert. Click HERE if you missed the segment that Colbert did on the rally in front of Fox News that Nas was a part of, but this is the real deal. Nas makes an appearance on The Colbert Report and gets an interview and performance segment!

Nas interview above, Nas performance below.